“Anna wants to tell you something.”
I can hear the sound of him kissing her before handing her the phone.
“Hey, Vinnie, how’s everything?”
“Everything is fine. How’re things at home?” I ask her. I actually miss the women and their crazy antics, even though my hands are full over here dealing with Shay. I think the women would like her a lot, but I don’t even want to consider why that makes me happy.
“Things are great. We miss you! Guess what happened the other night?” She snickers, then starts laughing before even telling me the story. I have a feeling this story is going to be like the penis cake incident. I listen as she rambles on about their night at Rift and how a woman was hitting on Lana but she had no clue, missing every hint, until the girl asked her to go home with her.
“And now you’re being the great friend you are and telling everyone?”
“Hell yeah I am,” she replies, laughing. “It’s revenge for the pizza story she told everyone last time.”
“Well it’s not anyone who would follow a random Italian backpacker back to her car and eat pizza out of her trunk when you didn’t know how long it had been sitting there.” I pause. “Or who the girl even was.”
“Ah, come on, live a little, Vinnie,” she says. “She was Italian. She knew great pizza. So is Talon’s cousin hot? Are there any added benefits to the job, if you know what I mean?”
I pause, not wanting to tell her the truth, because then everyone would be on my case and assume I was being swayed by a pretty face.
“You’re quiet, so I’m assuming she’s not very attractive and you don’t want to be mean, or she’s a total fucking babe and you don’t want us to give you shit over it when you get home.”
“Anna,” I warn, giving it away.
“Oh my god, she’s a hottie,” she whispers. “And you’re stuck in a house with her with nothing else to do. Have you slept with her yet?”
“Anna, not a word,” I growl, now pacing up and down. “And no, I haven’t. And I won’t be. So you can relax. And I didn’t tell everyone your pizza story, so you can keep this to yourself.”
“Of course,” she says, sobering. “But that excludes Arrow. You know that, right? It’s old-lady law.”
I scrub my hand down my face in frustration. “There’s nothing to tell, Anna.”
“Talon—”
“Has made it clear I’m not to touch her in that way.”
She’s quiet for a few moments. “Do you like her?”
“Anna, I barely know her.” Which is the truth, but the answer to her question would be yes. She’s beautiful and has a fire in her that I love to play with. “I gotta go, all right? Talk soon. Take care of Arrow for me.”
“Always,” she replies.
We both hang up. I rub the back of my neck, knowing I have only one option to save Shay, but it’s the one I’m most reluctant to take.
She’s already getting under my skin—I can feel it.
* * *
When I hear her scream, I race inside and up the stairs, my heart pounding. How did someone get in without making any noise? I made sure everything was locked and bolted—the only way someone could have made it in would be to smash the thick glass. I hear the sheer terror in her voice and know I’m going to kill whoever I find in that room with her. I slam her door back against the wall. Scanning the empty room, I hear a banging coming from the bathroom. I’m there in a second, freezing in shock when I see the scene before me.
There’s no one in the room except Shay.
A very naked Shay.
Every inch of her flawless skin all on display.
My gaze lowers. Fuck. She’s shaved bare, and is beautiful everywhere.
My mouth waters.
“What the fuck, Vinnie? Don’t just stand there perving on me— Kill it!” she yells. It’s only then I notice she’s standing on the bathroom counter, pointing at a giant spider in the corner of the room.
“Seriously?” I rumble, my shock turning into a mixture of anger and lust. “You screamed like someone is murdering you over that little thing?”
“You consider a spider the size of your hand a little thing? Can you please kill it, Vinnie?” she asks, covering her breasts with her hands. A little late, since I’ve already seen everything, but it brings me back to reality. I grab a towel off the rack and hand it to her, then scoop the spider up in my hand, making her whimper.
“I said kill it, not pat it like a puppy!”
“I’m not fuckin’ killing it,” I growl, even though if it were a human hurting her, I would have put him in the ground. An innocent spider though, I’m just going to release it outside. I leave her room and do just that, freeing it out the back, then return upstairs. This time, being the gentleman that I am, I knock on her door first. She opens it, the towel firmly wrapped around her delectable body.
“I thought someone broke in and was fuckin’ hurting you,” I growl, letting my expression tell her just how unhappy I am.
She surprises me by not arguing or giving me attitude—but apologizing. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you think something was wrong. But it ran on my foot! On my foot, Vinnie! And I freaked out.” She shivers like she’s remembering it happening. “I hate spiders. And cockroaches. And moths.”
“Moths?” I ask, my eyebrows rising. “The fuck?”